Overheating HTC One M9 issue may affect Windows Phones

The rather radiant handset in the above thermograph is the HTC One M9, HTC’s new flagship, and the reason it is lit up is because it is running the GFXBenchmark.

Tweakers.net have been testing the device, and unfortunately confirmed the rumours that it is a pretty hot device unfortunately in all the wrong ways.

The Snapdragon 810 processor is of course to blame, and it appears the issues, which saw the handset reach temperatures of up to 55 degrees Celsius (131 F) have not in fact been fixed at all.

The problem affects Windows Phone in two ways – one directly, in that the HTC One M9 is expected to eventually be released running Windows Phone, just like the HTC One M8, and secondarily because Microsoft has already announced that a Lumia running the SnapDragon 810 will be released later this year, and it will almost certainly be the flagship we have long been waiting for, with Microsoft saying:

“Microsoft and Qualcomm’s long standing collaboration has allowed the two companies to offer compelling business, imaging, and entertainment experiences with Lumia smartphones running on Windows Phone,” said Juha Kokkonen, general manager for portfolio and product management at Microsoft.

“We look forward to continuing this relationship to deliver best in class Lumia smartphones, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processors, and offer an unprecedented combination of processing power, rich multimedia, high-performance graphics and wireless connectivity for our customers.”

HTC in turn is blaming issues on unoptimized software, with HTC’s Senior Global Online Communications Manager Jeff Gordon saying:

@brianallison448 @JasonMacHTC That’s unfinished software.

— Jeff Gordon (@urbanstrata) March 16, 2015

Of course the optimization to prevent the issue may just be throttling the processor a lot, which would waste the potential of the new silicon.

Hopefully a better solution and a revision of the design will hit the market before final designs are committed in the upcoming Windows Phone flagship, else we suggest Microsoft bundle in some oven mitts in the box.